I Support Street Harassment

Photo Credit: 9gag.com

Like millions of other people, I was fortunate enough to come across the viral video, Ten Hours of Walking In New York, created by one Hollaback Project which purports to demonstrate what its like to be a woman(Shoshana Roberts) walking in public in New York.

I followed the aftermath of this video and I have to say: I’m disgusted. Disgusted by the feminists who put this together. As usual, feminists have done a great job of addressing the symptom, not the problem and in the process, further undermined their own cause.

The latent fears of women worldwide are being stirred by the misguided agenda of a group that knows exactly how to manipulate women by creating an issue where nothing really exists. Yes, I said it: street harassment exists, but its not an issue deserving the attention its currently receiving.

I should, know- I spent years approaching hundreds women in public. My interactions with most of them where overwhelmingly positive. Sure, a few women ignored me,but they were the exception. Most women were pleasant, agreeable to my approach, and didn’t object to giving out their phone numbers. I dated a handful and even hooked up with some of them within a few hours of stopping them on a busy street. Yes, this was before Tinder.

If what that video portrayed is street harassment, then I am guilty as charged. Not only am I guilty of street harassment on a near daily basis, I am guilty of teaching hundreds of men how to harass women in public spaces and encouraging them to make street harassment a lifestyle.

A majority of what was portrayed in the video was nothing close to “Street Harassment”. This issue has only fanned the flames of my desire to make street harassment more mainstream. I want men all over the world who see a gorgeous woman whom they would love to talk to walk by to grow a pair and harass her by getting her attention and publicly, openly expressing their sexual interest in her. You know, like normal human beings do.

There are several reasons why I support street harassment.

1) I know that “How are you” and “Hello” do not constitute street harassment: In the video, which may very well become the visual authority on what constitutes “street harassment”, men are shown attempting to gain the woman’s attention by saying “hello” and “How are you”. I don’t know what planet the PR team at Hollaback Project inhabits, but on earth, that’s a perfectly appropriate way to approach an individual in public. Why lump regular generic greetings together with random guys off the street who decide to walk a few blocks with you? How much impact would the video have if all the generic greetings were removed?

If saying “Hello” and “How are you” to random women on the street now constitutes street harassment, then I’ve been harassing women on a near daily basis since 2007. I’m a sociopath-lock me up.

2) Men have a right to freedom of expression, regardless of how they choose to express themselves. No man, woman, social group or government has the right to infringe on this basic freedom. There is a cost to living in a free society. A woman can wear what ever she pleases and stroll down whatever neighborhood she pleases and I can damn well say what I think about it wherever and however I choose. This whole notion of “men should be quiet in public unless spoken to” is ludicrous. Its also sexist.

3) I respect women. This is what the issue boils down to. The men who kept talking to Shoshana Roberts after she had clearly ignored them were being inappropriate and disrespectful. I teach men to be respectful when approaching women and to promptly honor her decision to not speak to him if she chooses not to. My father taught me to respect myself by respecting others, but as a man, do not feel obligated to censor yourself. Its that simple. The majority of men do not push the issue when a woman does not respond- as was demonstrated in the video.

4) I don’t support shaming men and women. We’re human. Humans talk to each other. We express ourselves through speaking. Sometimes that expression is one of sexual interest and that’s perfectly fine. It really hurts me to see groups like the Hollaback Project shaming perfectly normal expressions of sexual interest. How does this help men or women? This agenda only hurts both genders and moves us further away from our humanity.

5) I don’t support racism. The men in the video were overwhelmingly minorities. It was also possible that most of them were not highly educated and possibly unemployed. What do you expect when you take an attractive, curvaceous woman, put her in some clothes that show off her figure, let her hair down to accentuate her femininity and have her walk past uneducated Black and Latino men in their neighborhoods? It would be interesting to see the edited bits of the video- perhaps the ones where she walked for a few hours in an area filled with predominantly educated white men. Perhaps some educated white men with jobs who just happen to prefer to spend their day loitering on street corners.

Remember, there was a time in this country’s past that propaganda and veiled fear mongering similar to this gradually led to widespread support of lynching black men. It may not be overt, but the underlying theme of racism will surely have an impact. In case some of you missed it- the underlying message is that “Black and Latino men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of street harassment against white women.” I have no respect for a movement that projects its agenda on some of the least educated, easiest targets in America.

Men, there may not be too many voices out there these days supporting you and your sons. Don’t allow the political agenda of radical feminists manipulate you into total emasculation. Left to them, women’s only means of communicating with strange men would be Tinder. Approach and speak to whichever woman you want to. If she ignores you, or demonstrates that she’s not interested, respect her wishes and move on. Don’t let “street harassment” hold you back. Its that simple.

Be Happy,

Chris

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